Attack range increase; autocast or passive ability?

Here's my problem: I have an archer hero and I want to give her a range increase ability; originaly I wanted to go with searing arrows, since I have seen that they have different range values for different levels and I thought this could be used. However, it didn't work: the archer couldn't fire at range 1200, and I tried changing the aquisition range, believing this was the problem, but it didn't help. Then i figured, the spell has it's own acquisition range, so maybe I should leave the attack acquisition as it is and increase the attack range instead; still no good. Of course, increasing the aquisition range and attack range makes the unt fire at this range even when not autocasting the ability.

So, if making this as an autocast ability is not possible (I still hope it is...), then maybe it could be done as a passive? But how would i go about this; with upgrades? Can they be undone? They need to be, because what if the hero uses a tome of retraining? Any other way? I've read something about shadow orb ability; how does that work, does it take any extra buttons?

i got the same problem =S

Hero - Leans Ability ( ability )
Ability being learned equal to ( ability )
Set max level of ( custom upgrade ) to level 1

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only can be done with a passive

It probably didn't work at 1200 range because the hero's acquisition range isn't greater than or equal to 1200.

You have to use upgrades... or a chaos ability to switch the hero to a new one with longer range (btw chaos automatically preserves skill points), but a chaos solution isn't much fun if there are several levels.

I reccomend using an upgrade and making it so the ability cannot be unlearned (straight after they use tome of retraining, re-learn it to it's old level)

Thx for the info, I'll see if I will do it this way or think of some other ability for the hero...

wow... thats great... that means i'lll be able to make the roiginal ranger i had planned....

-summon grosj- summon a giant sea turtle that levels up
-strafe / take aim (needs name)- sacrifice walking for faster attack speed and damage. should be a turn on/off skill with a small mana cost... (help i dunno how to make :/)
-trueshot aura-
-farshot arrows- autocast arrows that increase range... OO..

I'm not quite sure if I didn't do something wrong, but the "change acquisition range" thingy didn't work. It was as if the trigger was changing something other than the "acquisition range" found in the object editor: I gave the unit 1200 attack range and 600 acquisition range. After using a trigger to increase the acquisition range to 1200 (the trigger did work, because I had a test-text show when it triggered), the unit still had the same attack range. Then I tried the other way around and increased the unit's acquisition range to 1200 in object editor and decreased it with triggers: the unit no longer autofired at enemies further away than 600, but if ordered to attack manually, it still had the same range. It was as if the "acquisition range" set in object editor determines, at which range the unit CAN attack enemies, while the "acquisition range" set by the trigger determines at which range the unit WILL automatically attack.

So, this doesn't work... unless I did something wrong, but what could it be?

this is sad guys, i got a perfect map that explains how to do it. i will let you copy and paste, but please give me credit :D here it is, it uses and custom upgrade that is triggered based on the level

umm someone already said that it can be done with upgrade, but this isnt what he needs.
as for your autcast range ability, im sorry i dunt think it can be done :/

hes how i would do it do a reverse spell that is always cast that reduces range then one that stops that to increase the range (dunno how u would do that though)

i used the night elf markmenship (i think) upgrade as a base i gave it something like 100 levels (i used it when a hero obtaining a bow an upgrade increes will happen when he drop it the upgrade increes will be undone)
to undone it use the same upgrade with negative values.